Asean health ministers’ agreement: what it means for Malaysia

Asean health ministers concluded their five-day biennial meeting in Kuala Lumpur with a five-year health agenda and steps to strengthen the region’s preparedness for future health emergencies.

The 17th Asean Health Ministers’ Meeting (AHMM), which ended on Friday, saw the official launch of the Asean Strategic Health Agenda (ASHA) 2026-2030 on Wednesday morning.

The agenda covers four areas – promoting healthy lifestyles, responding to health emergencies and emerging threats, strengthening health systems and access to care, and ensuring food safety.

However, launching the agenda is only the first step, as health ministry deputy director for global health Dr Juliana Sharmini Paul said member states will lead different projects according to their respective capacities.

“Malaysia is leading the Asean Emergency Operations Centre, through which we host webinars, bring in experts, and go over to other Asean countries for consultations on infectious diseases and beyond,” she told FMT.

She said most of the projects under ASHA are expected to be completed by 2030, with progress to be regularly reviewed by Asean health officials and ministers.

FMT takes a look at the outcomes of the 17th Asean Health Ministers’ Meeting, how Malaysia fits into the region’s health plans, and what happens next.

ACPHEED not operational yet

Juliana noted that the Centre for Public Health Emergencies and Emerging Diseases (ACPHEED), intended to coordinate expertise and regional responses to outbreaks or health emergencies, is not yet operational.

She said member states had moved closer to finalising the agreement to establish the centre. “Once that is finalised, then it can be signed and put into operation,” she said.

ACPHEED is expected to help coordinate access to vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics, while individual countries continue to operate their own surveillance systems.

Malaysia-led priorities

The meeting saw the launch of the Asean Action Plan for Lung Health, with Malaysia sharing its experience in using AI-assisted chest X-ray screening.

Juliana said lung health and tobacco control were high on the priority list for most member states.

Malaysia presented its Rare Diseases Playbook during a side event, with proposals requiring the consensus of all member states before they can become regional priorities.

Juliana said regional programmes could draw on funding from Asean’s dialogue and development partners rather than relying solely on domestic budgets, while collaborations with external organisations require member-state approval.

She said the impact of some initiatives would take time to assess, especially those aimed at improving population health.

“It’s not something you can just measure over one year or even two years. It will take time to see an improvement in the health status of the people at large,” she said.

What Malaysia must do next

Ilyana Mukhriz, a research associate at the Khazanah Research Institute, said the challenge for Malaysia now was to translate the regional commitments made at the meeting into tangible improvements to its health system.

Ilyana said on-the-ground action and appropriate fiscal commitments were necessary to ensure tangible benefits.

Pooled procurement at the Asean level, for example, could improve access to essential medicines and newer treatments while reducing pharmaceutical costs for the government and patients’ out-of-pocket spending.

She said Malaysia and its regional partners should also build local production capacity to reduce their dependence on global supply chains, pointing to the difficulties in accessing supplies during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“In this sense, we as part of Asean need to develop more regional production hubs to become less vulnerable,” she said.

Ilyana said closer cooperation was also needed to protect Malaysia from cross-border disease threats, including through real-time outbreak monitoring, effective data systems, and regional standard operating procedures for rapid responses.

She said progress could be measured through indicators such as drug costs, out-of-pocket spending, availability of critical medicines in public health facilities, and procurement lead times for advanced medical devices under the proposed single-submission model.

“However, the true test of the success of this regional health collaboration may only be visible during cross-border public health emergencies,” she said.

Ilyana said that with Malaysia preparing to hand over the Asean health sector chairmanship, continuity would require codified frameworks, monitoring and evaluation, and public reporting to ensure regional health ministries remain accountable for their commitments.

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